About Coleus
Coleus Packaging is the largest and most dominant supplier of metal bottle closures, known as crowns, for the brewing and bottling industries in Southern Africa. The company produces over seven billion crowns a year, supplying to more than 10 countries. This immense volume is achieved through the use of advanced technologies and high standard raw materials, whilst focusing on creating metal packaging solutions with the lowest possible ecological footprint.
Ian Victor, Managing Director at Coleus, introduces the company: “Coleus actually stretches back around probably 30 or 40 years, typical customers are the beer companies like AB InBev, Heineken, Distell… and then you’ve got the smaller breweries. Coleus is the sole provider of metal crowns, supplying all the different breweries throughout the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. I took over as MD in 2022, I’m an engineer by trade so we’re always looking at the technology changes and obviously efficiencies that come with it.”
Life before UV LED
Victor recalls a time when Coleus used conventional UV Arc curing at the plant, before the switch to UV LED technology on their Crabtree Fastready press, in June 2024: “I remember quite clearly when I first arrived here and I saw the way they actually cure with mercury, with these massive, big transformers and power supplies. We made a decision to try and reduce our energy consumption, and I motivated the project on the basis of technology change. Technology should be able to give you better efficiencies, lower consumption of energies and so forth.”
Discovering GEW and SArepco
He continues: “In the initial stages we had the option of going UV mercury or going to the upgrade to the LED system, and we actually went to Crabtree, and that’s where GEW’s name came up. We then found that the local agents SArepco had great knowledge – I think the decision we made around using SArepco was the best decision, because it was a phenomenal installation, it was very well done and very professional.”
Having made the decision to switch to UV LED, the Coleus team then worked closely with GEW’s Design Engineers to ensure the optimal configuration for their machine. Hennie Fourie, Senior Printer at Coleus, describes their setup: “We installed the LED six lamp system, so there’s one lamp after unit one, two, and then three, and then we’ve got three lamps after unit four for the final curing.”
The differences UV LED has made
Fourie explains the improvements the team have seen since their move away from UV Arc: “Well the curing system is very important for quality of print, we don’t want set-off or quality problems. So if you have set-off on the job, that means the print pulls off from the print side to the inside of the crown. With mercury, we had problems with set-off on the black and white where it’s not curing properly, so it gave us quality issues… and if you look at the old conventional systems, where you’ve got a big oven, there’s a lot of colour changes happening in there, scratches, anything can go wrong there as well. Now with the LED system we got far less printing-related issues… drying, curing issues.”
Rennie De Preez is Operations Executive in the Production and Engineering Area at Coleus. He comments on the benefits he has found with UV LED, particularly with regard to waste reduction, productivity, and energy savings: “The UV LED has improved our product quality tremendously. In terms of the waste, we averaged about 2% just on printing quality for blocking and set-off, but right now with the new LED system, now we’re actually down to 0.1%. In terms of production, when we were under the UV, we used to run at 3,500 sheets per hour, but now we improve to 4,500 sheets… that’s a huge improvement.”
He concludes: “There’s no second take on the jobs. Every job, once it goes on to the press, it’s out, straight to the customer now. We’ve done some recording on the electrical cost saving, we’re actually sitting on a 62% saving compared between the UV and the LED system.”
Victor agrees, and highlights how the energy savings and system efficiency of UV LED are further enhanced: “We did the technical evaluation, we noticed that the consumption on the LED system was a lot less than the UV mercury. The efficiency gain was also quite obvious, because with the UV mercury system there is a whole heat-up period before you can actually use it, whereas with the LED system you switch it on and use it immediately.”
The fact that this significant reduction in carbon footprint can be clearly demonstrated to customers gives Coleus a meaningful competitive advantage, as Victor explains: “If we, on an annual basis, are able to show big corporates like AB InBev and Heineken that we are reducing consumption of energy, that would obviously influence the decision of them, to enter into agreements with us. Using environmental credentials is extremely important, it is actually part of the tender process. There’s a socio-economical benefit, there’s a benefit for customers, there’s an environmental impact benefit and it is definitely a big selling tool for attracting new customers.”
Installation
The Coleus team wanted minimal disruption to their production schedule during installation and this was achieved, as De Preez details: “When we did the installation on the LED everything went smooth, no issues. The GEW team, they asked me for a nine day installation, they did it in six days.” He also comments on the space requirements of the newer technology: “When it comes to the design, with the previous system I had to fill up two walls, where I have to stack all this electrical and cooling equipment and now with the LED system there’s just two units sitting there and running this whole place. I would highly recommend it!”
De Preez concludes on the topic: “Now with the LED, the guys they’re doing it with a smile. There’s less heat transfer from the LED onto the sheets and it actually improves the stacking as well. Now with the LED unit… perfect stacking.”
The transition to UV LED inks
To begin with, Coleus did have some obstacles to overcome when it came to working with UV LED inks, as Fourie explains: “In South Africa, LED ink is not freely available, so with the help of an ink supplier we set up an ink kitchen and we started mixing our own inks. In the beginning it was difficult because of the difference in density and pigment, but as time goes on we learned to match the previous colour standard, 100%.”
Having overcome those earlier issues, Fourie and his team have since discovered some significant benefits: “On some jobs where we used to print double white, we can get away with one white, and black as well comes out more dense, better quality, so you use less ink, it gives you a far better quality print. The LED ink is more expensive per kilogram, but there’s some jobs that we use up to 50% less on the same colour… yes, 50% less – so at the end of the day, I think we break more or less even – and then also the lamps, on the previous mercury system we had seven lamps, we had to replace those lamps every 1,000 hours. Now with the LED system we have six lamps and we only need to replace them after every 40,000 hours.”
Improving the working environment and productivity
Victor turns has attention to the positive improvement in working conditions: “We’ve actually created a much better working environment for our employees because that area where the printer is in became extremely hot with the UV mercury system. Now with the LED you’ve reduced the temperature, so the working environment for workers are better.” He then moves on to the fundamental matter of the plant’s productivity: “It’s all about efficiencies, the more crowns you can get out the more you can sell. When I first started here we were probably doing around about 6 billion odd crowns… we’re over 7 billion crowns, so we’ve already had almost a 20% improvement.”
Reliability and conclusions
Hennie Fourie sums up his thoughts on the new technology: “Yes, the LED system saved me a lot of headaches. In the previous system I was responsible to sort out all the shutter errors, and there was a lot of them, so it’s a lot, lot less problems for me.”
Rennie De Preez is clear in his appraisal: “It actually changed my life. In comparison with the old system, there was a lot of downtime, there was a lot of call-outs… guys used to wake me up at night. Now with the new LED system, no sleepless nights for me anymore! In terms of the operators, my team working with this unit, the system it’s like magic, they know every time they start the press, the printer runs, the unit is there… that’s what they want, reliable equipment and that makes their work and their life, their working environment much more happier.”
Ian Victor concludes with a considered viewpoint and some prudent advice: “I think people think in Africa we’re always behind times, but we’re not. Here we are on the tip of Africa, away from all the big OEMs… Europe, where everybody looks up to… and we’re actually leading the pack.
“To anybody that’s going to convert to LED, you’ll realise the benefits very, very quickly. Get the right support, get the right people, talk to the OEMs, do your homework, talk to the ink guys, make sure that they support the system that you’re putting in. It is the way to go, it is the future, and the quicker you do it, the better.”
Watch the Coleus case study video
To learn more about LeoLED2, GEW’s highest power UV LED curing system for metal decorating applications, go here.
With thanks to Coleus and to our distributor in South Africa, SArepco, who completed the installation.
